It's been said before, but as a reminder, please keep the following
in mind when submitting posts for consideration:

If the post is a duplicate, first verify that the other instance
hasn't already been considered.

If the post is a duplicate, provide the id or a link to the
node it is a duplicate of. Nobody should be voting to delete
a duplicate without first verifying, and if the duplicate isn't
mentioned, this requires each person to search to find the missing
original, until someone modifies the title of the post to point
to it.

If submitting a node for a title change, supply an alternate title
in the consideration. You've read the post--the editor who goes
to correct it might not have, and if s/he isn't following the thread,
s/he probably doesn't want to read the post to think of an appropriate
title. If you can't think of a better title than
the original author did, you have no business considering it for
a title change.

Be very clear what the node is submitted for: edit or deletion and
why. Something like "should be obvious" isn't.
What's obvious to one person may not be obvious to another,
especially if the second person hasn't read the message yet.

When considering for duplicate deletion, only consider real duplicates.
This means that questions which have been asked time and time again
should not be considered--rather, reply to the post with an explanation
on the use of search and some results which would have answered the
question. This won't stop the next person from asking the question
(but neither will deleting the post), but it might teach one user
how to use search instead of bewildering her/him with a vanished post.

I've been seeing loads of posts Considered that, well, I wouldn't even have considered Considering. :)

I'd like to draw people's attention to Level 6: Friar which describes bad reasons to Consider a node, including: The question has been resolved and, in your opinion, did not involve enough Perl. The monastery tolerates general off-topic questions occasionally, and some monks even know a little bit about operating systems, web servers, databases, and the like. Perl is a glue language, and occasionally it has to interact with other things. Sometimes the problem is with the poster's code, sometimes not. If the question has come up before, it will probably come up again. Let the archives take it.

The only nodes I consider for deletion (apart from dups) are ad hominem attacks. Anything else, I might vote down, but I don't think is worth completely scrubbing from the records. Anyway, that's just me, but could people consider being a bit lighter with the Consider button?

Cheers,
Andy.

Update: See also What is Consideration?:Request that a node be deleted. Please only do this for blatant trolls (egregiously offensive) and true duplicates (where a post consisting of "I gave the same answer as some other monk but was slower" is not a duplicate). For useless, stupid, off-topic, and annoying nodes: if it is a root node, then don't approve it for any section; if it is a reply, just ignore it.

I've has a few thoughts about considering. Having
accidentally considered a node by typing in the wrong box
(drunk in charge of a keyboard, guilty as charged),
I wonder whether there could be more options for the considerer.

How about allowing the considerer to add text to their
initial remark. Then, I could have put D'oh!
or equivalent when I realised what I had done.

Also, people suggesting changing the title without supplying
a new title could be /MSGed and be able to add their title
afterwards.

This could also be used for circumstances where
there is more than one reason to consider a node: e.g. it may
need change of title and code tags, but the original considerer
only thought of the title. Someone else cannot consider the node
until it has been cleared by an editor. Under my proposal
you /MSG the considerer and he adds your suggestion if he
agrees with it.

Went to join the gridlock to see it
Held an eclipse party
Watched a live feed
I cn"t see tge kwubosd to amswr thus
I tried to see it, but 8000 miles of rock got in the way
What eclipse?
Wanted to see it, but they wouldn't reschedule it
Read the book instead